Man, If Only We Knew John Carpenter And Could Verify This Rumor...

Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
John Carpenter is a cagey man. I love that I can chat with him for a couple of hours at a time, and learn absolutely nothing about what else he’s doing besides our projects together. He plays everything very close to the vest. He knows that I’m always going to be a fan of his work, and he drops occasional hints to me (“Yeah, Kurt Russell was here and we were talking about something we might do...” “WHAT?!?!?!?!”) knowing full well that I’m going to get crazy about them.
So have I heard the title LA GOTHIC before? Yes. But not from him. And I know nothing more about it than you’ll read in this e-mail. But maybe I can wheedle something out of him about it next time we talk. It certainly sounds like it has some potential...

Hi, been working this summer as an intern at [someplace we deleted so this guy doesn't get shitcanned]. Been keeping my ears out for any scoops but none yet.
On Friday the CE in our office started talking to one of the producers about a new John Carpenter Movie. The "Thing" and the first "Escape From New York" are two of my favorite movies of all time so my ears perked up and I overheard the CE describing Carpenter's new movie. He said it's called LA Gothic and the script has various chapters but they all revolve around a Preist and his Teen-age daughter and that there are a ton of creatures in it. It's supposed to have vampires, zombies and a demon-possesed rock-star. He said it all takes place in LA over a couple of days and that it's vintage Carpenter tons of gore and action.
If you use this call me,
Lord Klaxon

Sounds very similar to the book DEMONS by John Shirley - LA in the Apocalypse, demons running the streets and humans living un a Hell-inspired oppressive rule. If Carpenter's making it, it'll likely be a mix of inspired genius and absolute shitcake - and the balance is not going well the older JC gets...<P>
Anyway, fuck all that - WHEN DO WE GET BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE WHEREVER 2 ?!?!? >;D

No, Mori. We don't get excited about any news that Carpenter is going to make a new film. After his abysmal projects over the past 10 years (and yes, I certainly include the dire 'Cigarette Burns'), I think it's a stratch for any fan to automatically assume it's going to be up there with EFNY, Halloween, The Thing or AOP13.
Don't raise the expectations. Try managing them instead.

The Thing, Escape, Little China were all top notch flicks. I thought Vampires was pretty good too, well except for James Woods. He is not at all a tough guy, I didn't believe him as a slayer for one minute. But JC did Vampires really good. If you want to see some more JC great creature movies check out the The Prince of Darkness and The Fog.
I hope this rumor is true, then that is all I want to hear about it. :>

unlike his recent stuff. I remember when he was on The Daily Show way back when he did Ghosts of Mars. The guy didn't even know what it was about. All he wanted was to marry some rich woman and get all her money. Either he's a total deadbeat, or a master comedian. All I'll have from him is The Thing and Escape from New York.

I'll go ahead and answer that question. Yes, it is "gay". Carpenter should move in a different direction. After VAMPIRES and GHOSTS OF MARS, I'd say it's high-time he consider some new subject matter. Although, he may be doing that with PSYCHOPATH (?).

Let me guess, the Demon-possessed rock-star leads the hordes of zombies and vampires (Alice Cooper ala Prince of Darkness?, Big Daddy Ghosts of Mars?). If Carpenter isn't careful, he could be creating great tongue in cheek commentary on today's celebrity obsessed culture. Although, that cynical commentary on Hollywood worked so well for EFLA *shudders*

It was still amazing. Great John Carpenter movies: Assault on Precint 13, Halloween, The Fog, Escape From New York, The Thing, Starman, Big Trouble in Little China, Prince of Darkness, They Live, In the Mouth of Madness.

...was amazing. Absolutely fucking amazing. Even the 'bad' ones like Christine and Prince of Darkness were entertaining. But this'll be a piece of shit. He's lost it. I gave him a chance with Escape from LA, I gave him a chance with Vampires (with James Woods doing his excruiciating 'hey vampire, lick my balls, you wanna lick my balls? come on, lick my balls', etc), I gave him a chance with Ghosts of Mars...it's over.

The guy has created some of my favourite movies of all time, so I always give him a chance with every film he does. Unfortunately, since Invisible Man (I liked They Live) there has been turd after turd, with maybe Mouth a borderline exception. I have yet to see Cigarette Burns however. <p>Come back to us John we love you!!!

I doubt it. That Carpenter has been MIA since Big Trouble In Little China. I'm hoping for 50% of vintage Carpenter to return instead of the 15% we've been getting all these years. Carpenter was known for directing dark, moody pictures that kicked all sorts of ass.I'm beginning to think that Dean Cundy and Debra Hill were the real talent behind his early work......

In THE FOG, Father Malone had a grandfather named...FATHER MALONE. Umm...<p>In PRINCE OF DARKNESS, he has everyday parish priests being driven around town in limousines while having their messages couriered to people by nuns.<p>I won't even get into VAMPIRES...

I'm first in line to see any new John Carpenter movie. I just hope that if, as it says above, there are "a ton of creatures" in L.A. Gothic, that he foregoes the KNB cartoony effects and dodgy CGI that have marred his films for some time now. He needs to take a stricter hand with that stuff. As good as KNB are (and they are good - look at their work on Sin City for example; fantastic stuff), I find some of their creature work lacking, big time. Rob Bottin's work on The Thing set a high water mark for genre FX, but since then the effects work, both make-up and visual, in Carpenter films has felt phoney.

And replaced by a look-alike robot. While the robot has fooled many people over the years, those who look closely can tell there is one major difference between the deceased director and his replicant replacement - THE ROBOT CAN'T DIRECT HIS WAY OUT OF A WET PAPER BAG.

Kurt Russel and his friend froze to death wondering which one had become the Thing when in fact it was the director who was absorbed by the alien lifeform and returned to make really shit films like Ghosts of Mars hoping no one would realise he wasn't the real John Carpenter. . .

No other person has made as many of my favorite movies. I know Masters of Horror is just a TV show, but I didn't sense greatness in his episodes. Ghosts of Mars also felt not as inspired as his earlier work. I hope the next thing he does really shows his passion. In the Mouth of Madness is one of my favorites.

Made anything good since Big Trouble In Little China. Portions of They Live, even Prince Of Darkness or In The Mouth Of Madness were okay, but the films overall were generally poor. Body Bags, Vampires, his Masters Of Horror output and most horrifically Ghosts Of Mars were complete and utter garbage. The worst kind of unwatchable bores, because in some of the cases, the concepts weren't half bad. Just really badly made. This project sounds pretty shitty, just from a pitch perspective, and with a naff title. I hope it isn't though, because like everyone else, when Carpenter was on form back in the day, he was the man. Cigarette Burns was a remake of a French Flick now? I thought it was a total lift of Flicker, that cool book no one seems to be able to make into a movie. As for the priest having a kid thing, are you retarded? You think thats not part of the hook? Like the writer sat down with complete ignorance to the celibacy vow? Wouldn't that be part of the dramatic conflict in the film? Did you know that a man can't leap tall buildings or run faster than a choo choo train too?

Is that he was obviously bored doing it. It may as well have been called Assault on Martian Precinct. <p>I really can ignore his track record since the 90's and pay to see any film he makes because he has made so many that I love and I want him to keep earning so he can keep making genre films. <p>Anything other than torture porn, please god, anything other than torture porn.

cundy was the best cinematographer of the 80's.if john carpenter wants to deliver a decent movie again then cundy has to be back on the team!he was the perfect foil for carpenters slower paced movies.debra hill and kurt russell co wrote/produced escape from L.A so its obviously not them who were making carpenter great.(kurt russel's best films are all carpenters!)
it has to be cundy's comic frame cinematography thats been missing.it almost forces carpenter into his slow paced groove!

controversial -- Provided the daughter was conceived before he became a priest (which does happen, although usually the church strongly discourages fathers from becoming Fathers; however, a la Wonderfalls, if he doesn't know ... )

I'm a huge fan of "The Thing," and I respect Carpenter, but this idea sounds silly bordering on stupid. A demon-possessed rock star? What, like Justin Timberlake? Like the lead singer of "Green Day"? The term "rock star" doesn't carry nearly the allure it used to. Hell, those singers on "American Idol" are all rock stars in most people's minds, right? Demon-possessed rock star, my ass. More like demon-possessed whiny bitch with styley emo hair.<p>
Yuck.<p>
"Ghosts of Mars" was a fuck-up of classic proportions, primarily because it pushed supernatural horror into science fiction. The two genres mix like oil and water every time. Pick one or the other, not both. Yet Carpenter thought it could work, I guess.<p>
How the mighty have fallen.

I think supernatural horror and Sci-Fi can mix if done properly- (people cite Event Horizon as Piss Wank Stain Anderson's only decent film, but it didn't do it for me.) Although, as they are both, arguably, difficult genres to do well it raises the chance of a fuck up to epic levels.<p>hmm, something to ponder on the way home.

Sorry, LordSoth. Same goes for "Resident Evil" over "Vampires," or "Event Horizon" over "The Mouth of Madness." Paul WS hasn't made the classics that Carpenter has, but he sure as hell is making better movies right now.

I'll take Event Horizon over Ghosts of mars, but the rest of them are all equally awful and I would much rather watch MAdness over Soldier and Resident Evil, <p>i would also watch all of them from both directors rather than Alien v Predator.

After his bad run in the 90s I'm sure he's lost rights to possesive titles. Are his kids named John Carpenter's Sally Carpenter and John Carpenter's Jimmy Carpenter? I wonder if he talks like the protagonist in Fight Club? "I am John Carpenter's complete lack fo surprise."<br><br>Now that I think of it, I would actually go see a movie called John Carpenter's Complete Lack of Surprise, but only if it had Ice Cube playing a priest and Kurt Russel as his son and the two have go to a maximim security prision that used to be South America and spring Michael Meyers so that three of them can travel to Antartica and kill Da Thing (played by 50 Cent).

I never saw it, but you guys are complaining about years after its release so it must be something incredibly awful. Anybody who wants to give me a well thought out critique of this film's flaws and what you would've liked to have seen instead, I would really like to hear it.<br><br>P.S. I do like the first three Alien movies and both Predator films. I just have no interest these franchise showdown films on general principle.

more like Paul WS vs Brett Ratner. Both are utterly devoid of style and responsible for trashing what were/could have been good franchises. But I would rather watch Anderson's entire filmography than anything from Brett Ratner again. Ratner is a hack to the extreme. I just do not get why his movies are successful. He doesn't make good movies, he makes "ok" movies at best.

...the guy writing it was posting about the development meetings with Carpenter and was told to shut up. He was a little overexcited. In any case, it is definitely in active development and in all likelyhood will be the next Carpenter film, unless Psychopath goes first.
<CR>
You know, aside from the lack of Dean Cundy - which is really, really important in terms of what happened to the great visuals of early Carpenter - the lack of Alan Howarth in the music really bites too.
<CR>
Howarth did a *lot* to make Carpenter's earlier soundtracks shine - witness the dropoff in soundtrack quality after Prince of Darkness.

Except even more annoying as Shopping and Event Horizon are actually quite good- It is the dizzying drop in quality afterwards that is truly, truly scarring. He's never to be forgiven for fucking up Resident Evil- which I honestly believed was the Game franchise begging for film treatment. Seriously, what did the prick turn out? He took basically a haunted house/ zombie premise and gave us hologrammatic computers, stupid tacked on romance, pathetic Amnesia script, shitty surprise ending and a banal thrashy soundtrack. AWFUL. <p>As for AvP if you haven't seen it, don't. Unless you really want to see some classy actors drowned in a mire of unremmitting stupidity, and not in a fun "Leprechaun" or Flash Gordon type of way.